XPost: alt.politics.homosexuality, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats   
   From: albasani.kook@albasani.net"   
      
   With swelling transient encampments abutting seven-figure homes,   
   the beachside enclave has emerged as a flashpoint for the   
   inequality shaping Los Angeles — and a real-world test case for   
   the liberal ideology of the area’s showbiz residents.   
   After the first attack, Randy Osborn figured it was just his   
   turn. Tire slashings in his east Venice Beach neighborhood had   
   become commonplace. But when his vintage Land Rover was hit a   
   sixth time in the course of a few months, Osborn, who runs a   
   small virtual reality company and has lived in Venice for seven   
   years, began to worry he was being singled out.   
      
   "It may have been random, but it sure felt targeted and   
   concentrated," says Osborn, who now protects his tires each   
   night with a jury-rigged plywood-and-chain contraption that has   
   so far deterred the assailants. Every time he takes his family   
   out of town, he worries about his house being robbed. "It's not   
   a very fun way to live," he says. A lot of residents within   
   Osborn's 15-block area just east of Lincoln Boulevard — where   
   actor Viggo Mortensen owns a home and director Jon Favreau is   
   opening a production office — have similar stories. And though   
   they can't say for sure, Osborn and others suspect the crime is   
   tied to several homeless encampments that have sprung up nearby   
   in the past 15 months.   
      
   Los Angeles is grappling with a homeless epidemic. "It's the   
   worst human catastrophe in America," says Andy Bales, a pastor   
   who runs the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row. Faced with a   
   growing crisis, city leaders last year budgeted more than $100   
   million for affordable housing, addiction treatment, job   
   placement and mental health services. And yet, as L.A.'s real   
   estate prices soar, so does the city's homeless population. And   
   nowhere have the twin forces of inaccessible housing and   
   inequality created a more explosive mix than in Venice Beach, a   
   hotbed of entertainment executives and talent where the median   
   home price is $1.9 million. Many of these residents are now   
   grappling with a quality-of-life issue that defies their own   
   liberal ideals.   
      
   Sleepless in Seattle and Community producer Gary Foster, who   
   moved to the area two years ago from Westwood and works with the   
   homeless advocacy group The People Concern, says he was   
   surprised by the number of residents who expressed exasperation   
   with — if not outright disdain for — the transient population.   
   "They tend to be liberal, they want to do good in the world, but   
   they're balancing their beliefs with how that might impact the   
   value of their real estate," says Foster, who began his activism   
   after producing The Soloist, about a journalist who discovers a   
   musical savant living on Skid Row.   
      
      
   Tristan Cassel   
   The Frank Gehry-designed home of artist John Baldessari.   
   "There are actually [residents] advocating driving the homeless   
   out of Venice — shipping them off somewhere, which is such a   
   proto-fascist move," says television writer Evan Dunsky, a 27-   
   year resident of the area. "And then what? Do we have to build a   
   wall around Venice?"   
      
   Venice is now home to the largest concentration of homeless   
   anywhere on L.A.'s Westside, with nearly 1,000 non-domiciled   
   people. During the past 18 months, several encampments have   
   swelled in more residential areas where homes can easily sell   
   for eight figures and up. Tents, many of them equipped with mini   
   refrigerators, cupboards, televisions and heaters, vie with   
   pedestrian traffic.   
      
   Residents who live near the encampments say mail regularly goes   
   missing. Break-ins have jumped. Hypodermic needles and human   
   waste are appearing on sidewalks and at local playgrounds.   
   Residents have complained to police about harassment and even   
   physical assaults. "This is more of a criminal problem than a   
   homeless problem," says one resident, who lives next to the so-   
   called Frederick camp adjacent to the Penmar Golf Course.   
      
   "There are crime problems in Venice," concedes Mike Bonin, whose   
   Council District 11 includes Venice Beach. Bonin has come under   
   intense criticism for his handling of the homeless crisis by   
   Venice residents displeased with his support of a measure to   
   introduce a massive, $5 million transitional housing project in   
   their city. At the same time, Bonin says, "I can't accept the   
   idea that there is an inextricable link between crime and   
   homelessness. It is wrong, it is not backed up by the data, and   
   it leads to bad policy."   
      
   Disagreements over the potential causes of the crimes have begun   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)